Power Outage.. What to expect?

[parkavenuereef]

Ok, well I lost power for 1 hour tonight, temps didn't drop due to my kerosene heater, what as far as a down fall should i expect? seems like at first glance, My star polips, the edge of the growth and on one rock an inch plus seems to have gone from the dark purple to a white.. fades back into purple slowly. they are extending though ok. Also my blue acro bleached a bit and seems to be shedding maybe. Any recomendation besides getting a generator asap? Thanks in advance!

 

[SVXH6]

my star polyps edge where growing is always whitish color.. i have three different types all growing well which all show this.. an hour w/o heat and temps not dropping shouldnt do that much if anything at all.. did you have any type of water movement at all in the tank?? i know they have battery backup pumps..a few months back my tank hit 62degrees because someone turned the power off in my room, everything was ok after a few days though..

 

[moriartiholmes]

I would be really surprised if an hour makes any difference. If you get a frag at an out of town meet it's in a bag without flow etc for longer than that.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Re: Power Outage.. What to expect?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7160515#post7160515 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by parkavenuereef
Ok, well I lost power for 1 hour tonight, temps didn't drop due to my kerosene heater, what as far as a down fall should i expect?

one hour? I'd expect nothing severe to happen.
It's warm out- how come you're using a kerosene heater?

 

[Sk8r]

I'd worry to a certain extent about the fumes from a kerosene heater reaching the tank. I hope that it is well-ventilated.

 

[ReeferMac]

The first problem when losing power is oxygen content of the water. The specific heat of water (especially when surrounded by glass or acrylic) is high enough, that heat loss will happen slowly - it's a problem in longer outtages, but not short ones. At the density we stock our tanks, it does not take long for animals to begin suffering from lack of O2 - In my system I estimate it's at about an hour or so. Every system is different. Everything in your tank consumers oxygen - even the crap on the rocks you can't see, so it goes fast when the water is stagnant. Circulation should be your first concern.
You can run a PH or small pump off one of those computer UPS's for some time (again, matching pump to run-time on a battery is a case-by-case thing, but generally, the bigger the longer). That will keep the water moving, and oxygenated, until the battery dies. I've got a larger sized UPS on my tank (APC 1000) to handle the return pump (Iwaki55), I get about 40-minutes off a fresh set of batteries. Power inverters and a car are also popular solutions, but also require intervention.
I really enjoy having this system setup, despite the fact that pumps and UPS's aren't the best combination, as it gives me peace of mind while away from the house - when the power does go, I've got 40-minutes to run home and get the generator running. :lol:

- Mac

 

[parkavenuereef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7160944#post7160944 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Sk8r
I'd worry to a certain extent about the fumes from a kerosene heater reaching the tank. I hope that it is well-ventilated.

I use my kerosene heater in my basement level where the tank is 6 months out of the year no issues, no specials vents...

 

[gary greguire]

mine has been down for over 4 hours at a time and never had any problems.

 

[parkavenuereef]

looks like we made it just fine... no special effects if anything the tank looks better... interesting!

 

[Chrsnwk]

I've hooked up a scuba tank to an airstone in the past when an ice storm knocked out power for the better part of a day just to keep some movement happening. A full tank could provide air for days to a couple of gentle airstones. A small propane/kerosene heater is good to keep the room the tank is in warm also. For heat you could also fill hot water bottles with water heated on a gas stove and float them.

 

[stainlessdonkey]

I have used the deep cycle yellow top Optima battery from my truck and an inverter to run my tank for hours before. Might be cheaper than a generator to get 2 batterys, an inverter, and an automatic battery charger. Then you don't have to worry about getting gas or the noise. Not quite as versatile as a generator though.